Responding to pressure from Louisiana officials, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is correcting a policy that has held up dozens of recovery projects. That's good news. But FEMA must be flexible in considering other delayed projects and preventing potential problems with the fix it's proposing.

The problem involved projects in Grand Isle and other coastal areas affected by the 2005 and 2008 hurricanes. FEMA had been negotiating or had already approved funding for the projects when agency officials said the buildings would not receive federal aid because they were in areas at high risk of flooding.

That left entities like the Grand Isle Volunteer Fire Department, which is seeking to repair its fire station, in a tough spot.

FEMA now says the projects will be eligible for rebuilding funds if damage was between 51 and 90 percent. That will allow 34 projects worth $33 million to move forward.

But Louisiana officials said the fix leaves out 28 other projects. FEMA and local officials should work on a solution for those as well.

In addition, FEMA needs to reconsider a potential side-effect of the solution it is proposing. Some projects that had been classified as new construction will now be reclassified as rebuilding, making them subject to another absurd FEMA rule.

That rule requires rebuilding the same type of facility, regardless of what makes more economic sense or what's needed on the ground. For example, a destroyed fire station that could have been replaced by a mixed fire station and sheriff's substation may now have to be rebuilt only as a fire station.

That would not be the best use of federal dollars.

FEMA officials should revise that requirement to ensure that in fixing one mistake, they don't create another.